As Residents from Across Pennsylvania Tell Legislators Their Stories, New Yorkers Against Fracking Releases New Television Ad Highlighting Dead Cows and Poisoned Water

(Albany, NY) – As the State rapidly approaches the deadline to decide whether to allow fracking to go forward in New York, residents from across Pennsylvania cameforward to tell legislators their stories. New Yorkers Against Fracking also released an ad <insert link>which will initially run in the Albany and New York City markets highlighting stories of dead cows and poisoned water.

“These stories from Pennsylvania are very alarming,” said Dr. Sheila Bushkin, MD, MPH of the Institute for Health and the Environment at University at Albany. “The perspective of the gas industry fails to show adequate concern for the long-term health and quality of life of people. When you listen to the personal experiences of actual residents of Pennsylvania and other states where fracking has gone forward, you will hear stories of dead cows, pets, sick children, poisoned water and other serious health and environmental problems. These stories confirm our need for much greater research and evidence-based scientific facts.”

Since fracking began in states outside of New York, there have been numerous reports of water contamination. Studies link fracking-related activities to contaminated groundwater; air pollution; illness, death, and reproductive problems in cows, horses and wildlife; and human health problems.

“My story is not unusual,” said Terry Greenwood, a farmer from Southwestern Pennsylvania. “After my cows drank from a pond that was contaminated by frackwater, 10 of the 19 calves were born stillborn.”

“The industry says there are no problems,” said Tammy Manning. “Well when the industry came to Northeastern PA, our water turned black and started bubbling. It got so bad that the state required the companies to provide us with deliveries of clean water. But that’s not a long-term solution.”

“With tens of thousands of wells, transportation and processing devices spread across the landscape of the typical gas fields or plays, hundreds ofaccidents will happen over a year,” said David Brown, a public health toxicologist from Southwest Pennsylvania in a statement. “No one can assure people who live, work, or attend school near drilling and fracking operations that they are safe.”

“The Cuomo administration repeatedly asserts that human health problems from fracking will not occur because its proposed regulations will eliminate all pathways of exposure, even though it has not identified these exposures through direct investigation and cannot explain how regulations would prevent exposures from inevitable accidents and well failures,” said Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. “Rather than undertake a comprehensive health impact assessment of fracking, the Cuomo administration instead hired outside experts to review its own internal health evaluation but released revised regulations before completion of the health review and has refused to release any substantial information on the review, placing gag orders on the outside experts.”